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Ministers considering human rights reform in bid to head off Reform as defence secretary say Starmer going ‘up a gear’ – UK politics live

New home secretary Shabana Mahmood expected to to say asylum seekers will be moved from hotels to barracks

John Healey also said Shabana Mahmood will be “just as tough as Cooper” on Palestine Action, the campaign group opposing Israel’s assault on Gaza that the government controversially proscribed under the Terrorism Act in July, making membership of or support of the group a criminal offence.

More than 425 people were arrested in London yesterday at the largest demonstration yet opposing the proscription of Palestine Action.

I think you’ll start to see Keir Starmer insist that dealing with the small boats, solving the immigration illegal immigration crisis, is part of the jobs the whole of government, not just the Home Office.

So with the Home Office, I have been putting military planners into their Border Command and into their planning for the future, and we are looking at the potential use of military and non military use sites for temporary accommodation for the people who come across on these small boats that may not have a right to be here or need to be processed before we can decide whether or not they should stay or whether or not we deport them like we have done in record numbers over the last year.

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© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Reuters

© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Reuters

© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Reuters

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From pop producer to activist: Robin Millar on the barriers disabled people still face

He made his name with chart-topping hits – now the Scope chair wants to change how society sees disability

Pop mogul Sir Robin Millar is not a man who you would expect to struggle with access in the music industry.

In a glittering career that spans decades, he has worked alongside some of the most celebrated names in British music, from Sade to Boy George, and counts legends such as the Rolling Stones among his list of A-list friends.

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© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

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Brainless bodies and pig organs: does science back up Putin and Xi’s longevity claims?

Russian leader’s claim that people can ‘get younger’ through repeated organ transplants has raised eyebrows

Perhaps it was the extravagant display of deadly weaponry that prompted Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to mull on mortality at this week’s military parade in Beijing.

It was more banter than serious discussion, but with both aged 72, the Chinese president and his Russian counterpart may feel the cold hand on the shoulder more than Kim Jong-un, the 41-year-old North Korean leader who strolled beside them.

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© Photograph: ���n�ʐm��; 朝鮮通信社/AP

© Photograph: ���n�ʐm��; 朝鮮通信社/AP

© Photograph: ���n�ʐm��; 朝鮮通信社/AP

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Merseyside derby in WSL, England reaction and Germany v Northern Ireland – matchday live

A couple of columns from our team of European experts.

Philippe Auclair on possible solutions to Ligue 1’s financial crisis.

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© Composite: Guardian Design

© Composite: Guardian Design

© Composite: Guardian Design

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Antony a rare piece of spending for Spanish clubs unable to match Premier League’s wealth

Real Betis fans were overjoyed at the arrival of the Manchester United outcast but like many La Liga teams, the club were only able to buy by selling some of their stars

A goat crossed the Guadalquivir, which was when they knew. They had been made to wait until the last day of summer and on the footage it was a CGI creature scuttling over the Isabel II bridge (no animals were harmed in the making of this announcement) but Real Betis had actually done it. There were four hours left on deadline day and they had signed Antony Matheus dos Santos, or Antonio of Triana as they call him. When they’re not calling him the Goat.

Triana is the Betis neighbourhood, Seville’s artistic heart on the west bank of the river, and Antony could not be more popular there. Last season he arrived on a six-month loan and changed everything, leading them to a European place, a derby win that was celebrated like it was the World Cup, and a European final. He had been changed too, happy again, the footballer he was supposed to be. This was his place, somewhere they loved him. He had wanted to come back the moment he left and they had been desperate for him to return.

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© Photograph: Fran Santiago/Getty Images

© Photograph: Fran Santiago/Getty Images

© Photograph: Fran Santiago/Getty Images

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Sorry, purists: the Coachella-fication of the US Open is here to stay

Once prided as the ‘people’s slam’, New York’s major now doubles as a lifestyle carnival where attending is no longer just about watching, but being seen watching

Every August, the US Open rolls into Queens with its ever-expanding rituals of consumption. Fans don’t just buy in, they perform it: the $23 Honey Deuce held aloft for Instagram, the $40 lobster roll posted before the first serve, the $100 caviar-topped chicken nuggets bought as much for the flex as the flavor. The tennis has never been the cheapest day out, but lately the sticker shock feel less like a barrier than the point. The price tags are festival markers, proof that what was once a tournament with posh accents has morphed into a cultural happening. In what seems like a remarkably short time, New York’s major has become less sporting event than aspirational brand.

The final grand slam tournament of the season, which concludes Sunday with a mouth-watering men’s final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, has never completely shied from its tony roots as part of the New York “social season”, but its latest evolution has taken it past a major sporting event into a festival economy. The sport is still there – highlight-reel shots, lung-busting rallies, after-midnight thrillers – but the real main draw are cocktails priced like small bond issues, influencer blocs in branded bucket hats and a dating show filmed courtside. The spectacle isn’t Sinner’s thunderbolt serve or Aryna Sabalenka’s power-baseline game but whether Chloe Malle is Anna Wintour’s plus-one or Kareem Rahma of Subway Takes posts his courtside selfie before or after the Honey Deuce runs dry. That libation, once just a cute themed lemonade and vodka in a souvenir cup, has mutated into an inflation-defying fetish object with its own merch line. Entire kiosks now sell Honey Deuce shirts and trucker hats in pastel colorways, so you can broadcast your melon-ball allegiance long after the hard-won hangover fades. It’s less a drink than a franchise, an alcoholic Funko Pop, proof that you didn’t just attend the Open: you consumed it, posted it, stacked it, wore it and recycled it into personal branding.

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© Photograph: Adam Hunger/AP

© Photograph: Adam Hunger/AP

© Photograph: Adam Hunger/AP

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Vive les Socios: struggling French clubs open doors to shareholder fans in tough times

Supporters are putting money into their teams in a typically collective response to financial crisis

There seems to be a not-for-profit association for everything in France, from amateur mycology to choral music and international disaster relief. There were one and a half million Associations Loi 1901 at the last count, which equates to one for every 48 inhabitants, with 60,000 to 70,000 new groups created each year. They constitute an essential part of the fabric of French society, a natural response to every kind of need felt by local communities – except when it comes to organised football.

This is odd, considering professionalism was introduced by the French FA as late as 1932 after a decade of hand-wringing and it would have been natural for practitioners of the game to take the matter in their own hands. Yet in France, club ownership at all but the lowest level has always been the preserve of private individuals, local authorities and, a very French trait, businesses that have set up teams for their employees, the football corporatif or football entreprise, which has its own leagues and federation.

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© Photograph: Icon Sport/Getty Images

© Photograph: Icon Sport/Getty Images

© Photograph: Icon Sport/Getty Images

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The French government is on the brink – and Le Pen is the only winner | Paul Taylor

Saddled with a financial crisis and unpopular reforms, the prime minister, François Bayrou, seems doomed. Will he take Macron with him?

François Bayrou may have thought it was a smart pre-emptive move to call a parliamentary vote of confidence in his minority government ahead of a planned national protest day on 10 September and the start of a fraught parliamentary budget season.

Determined not to meet the same fate as his predecessor who was toppled by parliament last December, the French prime minister appears to have chosen political hara-kiri instead. His near-certain ejection by a hung parliament on Monday (8 September) is set to turn a smouldering political deadlock into a blazing crise de régime.

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© Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

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‘When can I go back to school?’: communities in danger hold on to education in Latin America – picture essay

Some of the most disadvantaged communities in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia are taking part in Plan International’s Safe Schools project

“When can I go back to school?” That’s the first question many children across Latin America start their day with. For millions in the region, there’s often no guarantee that their school will be open, accessible or safe that day.

Classrooms caught in crossfire, hours-long walks and buildings destroyed by natural disasters are just some of the obstacles children face. On top of that, extreme poverty and displacement force many to drop out.

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© Photograph: Chris de Bode/Panos Pictures

© Photograph: Chris de Bode/Panos Pictures

© Photograph: Chris de Bode/Panos Pictures

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A message from Tehran for Britain, France and Germany. You made a big mistake reimposing sanctions: pull back | Seyyed Abbas Araghchi

Europe is wrong to follow Donald Trump’s strategy. We are open to diplomacy and a new deal over our nuclear programme, but sanctions must go

For more than two decades, Europe has been at the heart of the ongoing, manufactured crisis over my country’s peaceful nuclear programme. In many ways, the European role has reflected the state of broader international power relations. Once a moderating force aspiring to restrain a belligerent America with maximalist aims in our region, Europe is today enabling the excesses of Washington.

Last week, Britain, France and Germany – or the E3 – said they had activated the process to “snap back” UN sanctions on Iran. The mechanism was set up to penalize significant non-performance under the 2015 nuclear deal signed by Iran, the E3, the US, China and Russia.

Seyyed Abbas Araghchi is foreign minister of Iran

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

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Six of the best farm stays in Europe for delicious local food in glorious countryside

Tuck into great food and drink at hotels, farms and B&Bs in France, Ireland, Portugal and beyond

A hamlet of restored rural buildings in the Ortolo valley in Corsica reopened in June as A Mandria di Murtoli. Guests can stay in a former sheepfold, stable or barn, or one of five rooms in the main house. Three of the smaller properties have private pools, all rooms have terraces and there is a big shared pool. The buildings have been refurbished by Corsican craftspeople in a minimalist Mediterranean style, using local materials.

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© Photograph: Moirenc Camille

© Photograph: Moirenc Camille

© Photograph: Moirenc Camille

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Broadcasters told not to air any booing of Donald Trump at US Open men’s final

  • Trump will appear on big screen during national anthem

  • Broadcasters asked ‘not to show any disruptions’

US Open broadcasters have been asked not to show any negative crowd reactions to Donald Trump at Sunday’s men’s final.

The president is expected to attend the match between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in New York, with security at Flushing Meadows being heightened in preparation.

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© Photograph: BPI/REX Shutterstock

© Photograph: BPI/REX Shutterstock

© Photograph: BPI/REX Shutterstock

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Red Roses must relish unfamiliar pressure in quest for World Cup glory | Andy Bull

England’s final group match put the hosts in the rare position of a close encounter – but they passed the test in the end

You can measure a good team by how many they’ve won, or you can measure them by how many they might have lost but didn’t. The Red Roses are well ahead on the first count, they’re on a 30-match winning streak now, and have suffered just the one, solitary, defeat in the last six years.

But it’s less clear what their other tally is. Their one-point victory over France in the final match of this year’s Six Nations was the only time they’ve had to confront the possibility of losing in the last few months, and even in that match they led from start to finish.

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© Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters

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Watching Andorra: like a month made up entirely of Tuesday afternoons | Barney Ronay

England’s opponents’ entire game involves trying to stop football happening. A draining existence, but one they have become rather good at

“And here are the best bits from tonight’s 2-0 win.” All things considered the stadium announcer at Villa Park probably deserves some kind of civic heritage award for his fine work preserving the dry gallows humour of this part of the Midlands.

What was this occasion exactly? Ninety minutes of light cardio? A day to marvel, perhaps more than ever before, at the contrast in tone and staging between the basic product of club and international football? By the end this World Cup qualifier felt closer to a piece of mid-range pageantry, some kind of trooping, a march past, one of those tedious, formularised affairs where the whole point is plumage and horsery and shiny buttons, and where the only thing to say, in between drifting off into a revery on your own mortality is, yes, well, we do at least do these things very well.

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© Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

© Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

© Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

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Israel destroys second Gaza high-rise as military kills another 56 Palestinians, including aid-seekers

Residents say military gave them 20 minutes to evacuate 15-storey building before attacking, with casualties unclear

An Israeli strike has destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City – the second in as many days – as the military demanded residents move to a so-called humanitarian zone in the south of the territory and slaughtered at least another 56 Palestinians, including aid-seekers.

Israel on Saturday issued evacuation warnings for two high-rises in Gaza City and surrounding tents. Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, claimed without providing evidence that the buildings were targets because Hamas had infrastructure inside or near them. Soon after, Adraee said that the military had struck one of the buildings.

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© Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

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Largest Russian air attack of war sets fire to Ukrainian cabinet building and kills three including child

Unclear if fire at main Ukrainian government building the result of a direct strike or falling debris

Russia’s largest overnight air attack of the war has set the main building of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv on fire and left three people dead, including an infant, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.

Russia hit Ukraine’s capital with drones and missiles, injuring 18 people and setting scores of buildings on fire, including .

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© Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

© Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

© Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

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Keir Starmer has ‘legal duty to stop Gaza genocide’, says Greta Thunberg

Exclusive: Activist spoke while onboard aid flotilla aiming to deliver food, baby formula and medical supplies to territory

Keir Starmer must obey his “legal duty to act to prevent a genocide”, Greta Thunberg has told the Guardian while travelling aboard an aid flotilla heading for Gaza.

The Swedish activist said there was a “huge absence of those whose legal responsibility it is to step up” under international law, and called out the UK prime minister before a potential meeting this week with Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog.

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© Photograph: Mario Wurzburger/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mario Wurzburger/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mario Wurzburger/Getty Images

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Our daughter is being controlled by a school friend. What can we do?

This is a horrible situation. It would be difficult even for an adult, so your daughter definitely needs action

Our 11-year-old daughter is in a “friendship” with a classmate, which we have come to realise is unhealthy and controlling. She was very shy and self-conscious through the early years of school and struggled to make friends, so we were initially delighted that she had found a close friend. However, we’ve become aware that there is a consistent pattern of control from this girl: demands about when and where they meet, or what our daughter can and can’t wear. If our daughter goes against her, she risks being shunned and ignored or spoken to aggressively.

This girl does not let our daughter interact with others without her. There is a barrage of demanding messages and calls at home about arrangements, and we see our daughter being vigilant and tense, having to respond immediately. Sometimes there is unkindness, for example saying our daughter’s clothes are babyish. Around the controlling behaviour, they seem to interact more normally, having fun, playing and chatting – it is this Jekyll and Hyde pattern that makes it so difficult to know how to support our daughter.

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© Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian

© Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian

© Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian

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France’s political crisis reveals deep rift between the people and their politicians

The likely fall of prime minister François Bayrou exposes a political malaise that is likely to sour French politics well beyond the 2027 presidential election as the far right exploits the moment

As the French government faces likely collapse in a confidence vote on Monday, plunging the eurozone’s second biggest economy and key diplomatic power into a domestic political crisis, Jonathan Denis, a 42-year-old a bank manager and health rights campaigner, was concerned about the terrible impact it will have on France’s dying and terminally ill.

The centrist president Emmanuel Macron had promised assisted dying and improved palliative care would be the biggest social reform of his second term but the bill, which had been scheduled to go before the senate next month, now risks being delayed once more by the unpredictable revolving door of four prime ministers in just over three years.

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© Composite: AFP / Getty Images / Guardian Design

© Composite: AFP / Getty Images / Guardian Design

© Composite: AFP / Getty Images / Guardian Design

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I was a chess prodigy trapped in a religious cult. It left me with years of fear and self-loathing

Growing up dirt poor in Arizona’s Church of Immortal Consciousness, I showed an early talent for the game. Soon the cult’s leader began grooming me to become a grandmaster – even if it meant separating me from my mother …

When I first discovered chess, after watching the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer on HBO, I was a nine-year-old kid living in a tiny village in the mountains of Arizona. Because of its title, many people think the film is about Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who bested the Soviet Union in 1972, defeating Boris Spassky to become the first US-born world chess champion in history. Really, it’s about how the American chess world was desperate to find the next Bobby Fischer after the first one disappeared. The story follows Josh Waitzkin, a kid from Greenwich Village in New York, who sits down at a chess board with a bunch of homeless dudes in the park one day and miraculously discovers that he’s a child prodigy – at least that is the Hollywood version of the story.

Searching for Bobby Fischer was to me what Star Wars was for kids a few years older. I didn’t simply love the movie. I was obsessed with it. Any kid who’s ever felt lost or misunderstood or stuck in the middle of nowhere has dreamed of picking up a lightsaber and discovering the Jedi master within. That was me in the summer of 1995, only with chess.

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© Photograph: Chad Kirkland/The Guardian

© Photograph: Chad Kirkland/The Guardian

© Photograph: Chad Kirkland/The Guardian

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‘People are so angry’: how wealth tax became a battleground in Norway’s election

Issue creates clear dividing line between left and right, as populists target voters with vow to scrap levy

It is the issue that has set the Norwegian general election alight: whether to keep, cut or abolish the national wealth tax. As the country prepares to go to the polls on Monday, Norway is in the grip of a ferocious national argument that is likely to rumble on whichever party wins.

In an economy less then a seventh the size of Britain’s, the formuesskatt raises about 32bn kroner (£2.4bn). Multiply that by the difference in GDP, and the same rules applied in the UK could raise more than £17bn – serious money in tax terms. Defenders say the wealth tax has another benefit. They see it as the cornerstone of a progressive tax system that has helped to create one of Europe’s most equal societies.

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© Photograph: Youtube

© Photograph: Youtube

© Photograph: Youtube

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One by one, leaders learn that grovelling to Trump leads to disaster. When will it dawn on Starmer? | Simon Tisdall

As the US president’s state visit looms, he’s leaving a trail of broken promises across the globe. Britain can’t afford to look like a lackey state

  • Sign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and more

Sucking up to Donald Trump never works for long. Narendra Modi is the latest world leader to learn this lesson the hard way. Wooing his “true friend” in the White House, India’s authoritarian prime minister thought he’d conquered Trump’s inconstant heart. The two men hit peak pals in 2019, holding hands at a “Howdy Modi” rally in Texas. But it’s all gone pear-shaped thanks to Trump’s tariffs and dalliance with Pakistan. Like a jilted lover on the rebound, Modi shamelessly threw himself at Vladimir Putin in China last week. Don and Narendra! It’s over! Although, to be honest, it always felt a little shallow.

Other suitors for Trump’s slippery hand have suffered similar heartbreak. France’s Emmanuel Macron turned on the charm, feting him at the grand reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. But Trump cruelly dumped him after they argued over Gaza, calling him a publicity-seeker who “always gets it wrong”. The EU’s Ursula von der Leyen, desperate for a tete-a-tete, flew to Trump’s Scottish golf course to pay court. Result: perhaps the most humiliating, lopsided trade deal since imperial Britain’s 19th-century “unequal treaties” with Peking’s dragon throne.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

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Is anything more awkward - and potentially insulting - than giving up your seat on public transport? | Polly Hudson

Celia Imrie was recently shocked to be left standing for a long train journey. But the etiquette of when to offer your seat is complicated

It’s easy to jump to conclusions, especially about human nature, particularly when your verdict is negative. But now and then, all is not as it seems. For example, in the case of Celia Imrie, who recently hosted the 80th anniversary VJ Day commemoration at the Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire. King Charles and Queen Camilla were in attendance, and she described the day as “extraordinary”. Unfortunately, the experience was dampened somewhat by her journey home to London.

“Now, I never make a fuss, but I had to stand all the way back for two-and-a-half hours because nobody decided to give up their seat,” the 73-year-old told a recent interviewer. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said, attributing this to being invisible to younger generations, who have no respect for their elders. “So if you’re asking me, do people not really notice you as you get older, I’m afraid I do notice that,” she continued. “Even just walking on the street, you’re not envisioned. It’s really weird. I wear a bright coat.”

Polly Hudson is a freelance writer

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© Photograph: Igor Suka/Getty Images (Posed by models)

© Photograph: Igor Suka/Getty Images (Posed by models)

© Photograph: Igor Suka/Getty Images (Posed by models)

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